The allowance and who shares it
The £2,000 allowance is shared across employer and employee NI savings. Once combined savings exceed £2,000 in a tax year, the excess sacrifice is treated as NI-able pay again.
- The allowance is £2,000 total, not £2,000 each for employer and employee.
- Income tax relief is unchanged; only NI relief is limited above the allowance.
- Employer NI pass-through into pension shrinks once their saving is clawed back.
Quick examples
Use the calculator to test monthly and bonus sacrifices. As a rough guide, sacrificing £5,000 above the cap while earning below the upper earnings limit leads to about £5,000 × 23% ≈ £1,150 of total NI being clawed back (8% employee, 15% employer).
NI per £1 above the cap
- 23p if you are below £50,270 (main NI rate)
- 17p if you are above £50,270 (upper NI rate)
- 15p from an employer-only perspective
Plug your salary, sacrifice method, and employer pass-through into the calculator to see the exact NI clawback and pension funding change.
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